Keep up the good work

Just so you know. The negative comments on here are a combination of various formats of the game. Like you, who find the game enjoyable playing franchise mode. Those that have complaints have the same entitlement, to disagree and post negative comments. And since you have not experienced other venues of this game. Perhaps you should extol your comment of content, and not call out others who dont share your enthusiasm. I am glad you find pleasure in the game, and i hope you continue to do so. But respect those that have played this game for years and have been frustrated. We all dont see things through the same eyes. Its not the negativity of the community that is causing problems in the game. That lies solely with EA

I get your point. And I see that playing the online modes especially can cause frustration and I have to say that I just came back playing NHL regularly with NHL 25 after playing nhl 14 forever.

But poking on all these little details with that much anger is just not helping as I can imagine that EA_Aljo which I understand is the only EA-related guy reading and answering here will be less willing to get into different matters in such an atmosphere. 

All things considered the NHL franchise seems to not get a lot of love from EA and my idea was to get a more constructive discussion in place. 

Your point is noted, and commendable. But the object of objection and discontent, is to bring notice to EA, that there are elements that need to be fixed. Like everyone. We all pay to play this game. And when buying any product, you expect that product to be enjoyable, useful or just plain functional. When elements of this game start to show flaws. Who should be the ones to point them out. Its this community of players, who like yourself, want to see this game, be the best it can be.  Hence the negativity. Because EA does not recognize nor bother to fix that which is the irratant to the community. I hope you see the validity in my explanation. The community is not trying to end the game. Just improve it. And just for clarification. The community does not in anyway, hold Aljo responsible for any of EAs problems. He is a go between. Community to Source. And is respected for his time and effort he affords us all.

I see that nobody here is going after somebody personally and thats the base for a good discussion.

My fear is that the few passionate guys at EA responsible for NHL getting the vibe that their work is not appreciated enough as I see that there ressources are very limited compared to bigger franchises at EA.

And these guys are pushing to get the game better not the EA Corporation. So guys like EA_Aljo, if passionate as I assume, are the ones the negativity is directed at and I don't want them to slow down in figthing for ressources for our franchise.

So lets factor these obvious limitations in and nobody knows about the emphasis the new Saudi sole ownership will put on EA sport titels.

Also I am european so maybe not understanding NA consumer culture but there are always passionate people with limited resources behind such projects.

Very true but I pay my£62 this year expecting that the game will play at least as well as last year after patches and it doesn't,  it does not represent anything like a true icehockey real life game,  I feel that paying my money to ea represents a contract,  £62for a game that should be incrementally better than last year. In franchise and season modes it's not its just a hit fest, nowonder it's not on pc steam because alot like me would refund it. 1 person or 10 devs is irrelevant as its a company called EA not a small indie developer so the only outlet is to express our frustration and disappointment on these boards .

Honestly bud, as much as your thought process makes sense. When in the past 15 years has EA produced anything worthy of our money? This is the first one ive purchased since NHL 15 since i heard they changed be a pro and got exactly what i expected, the same game with new players, different stats, and a slightly different be a pro, bogged down with bugs, toxic people online, fake hockey gameplay, **bleep** hockey AI, and tons of microtransactions. Usually i just wait for gamepass to have it.
Paying your money to EA does represent a contract, you pay them and you get a game called NHL 25. Whether you like it or not is not their concern after youve purchased it though quite frankly, thats what reviews are for. If youre seriously not smart enough to expect otherwise or read reviews before you purchase then they probably deserve your money more than you.
Also your point about how large the dev team is, is completely moot. They can have the largest dev team in the world but its not up to the developers what to put in the game unfortunately because they have no power and they need to have a job at the end of the week so they can buy crappy EA games and what not